85 f250 Explorer -recreating my Dad's Truck BRUTIS

[Wtsmith]

My Dad had an 81 F150 with an 8ft bed and a 351 under the hood...  It was a big truck to me as a kid even before he put 37×12.50 Mickey Thompsons on bullet hole shiny 15" wheels all the way around...

I loved that truck he proudly called BRUTIS ... Still makes me smile

Well I happened across an 85 F250 Explorer package, 6.9 liter diesel under the hood with 82k on the dash and it's 4x4 too ... better yet this truck was at an impound lot about to be sent to the crusher... I just had to own it. I think i made a heck of a deal picking it up for just $500 out the door.

I'm excited to get it fixed up and see where the journey takes me...

I'll see if I can find some pictures of my dad's truck too...Obviously it won't be an actual recreation but still it's a bullnose Ford and I already know he likes it!!!

By the way any of you guys that might know what your looking at ... can you tell me anything about the swirly tape stripes on this truck... it really does look to be stock but i can't find anything similar in any of the period correct literature...

I'd hate to do away with the stripes if it was originally optioned that way... I think my goal for this truck is going to be a "as close to original as I can afford" (on a tight budget) but with decent looking/performance upgrades... thanks in advance for your time and knowledge...
WtS20220316_162351.jpg20220316_162402.jpg

[Gary Lewis]

WELCOME!  Glad you joined.  

But you may have missed the email asking you to introduce yourself in the New Members Start Here folder.  We do that because the guidelines are posted there and we hold everyone to them so want you to have every opportunity to have read them.  Have you?

And where's home?  We have a map (Bullnose Forum/Member's Map in the menu) and can add you with a city/state.

As for the picture, you need to read up on how to post them on here on the page at Bullnose Forum/Forum FAQ's.  But I'll post it for you here.  However, since it is over 1MB in size I used the Big scaling option.

Last, the stripes are probably not factory.  You can see the factory tape strip options on our page at Documentation/Specifications/F-Series Tape Strip Codes, and I don't see any that match.

[Wtsmith]

Sorry for my ignorance,  I did the signature thing and re-posted on the new members folder... I'll visit the FAQ page at lunch time and figure out how to better upload pictures... Also I live an hour outside Boise Idaho... thanks again for your help

[salans7]

Those stripes seem to be some sort of either dealer add-on, or maybe the truck went through a conversion company when newer (Centurion, Kodiak, etc). There were plenty of aftermarket options for stripe kits back then.

[Gary Lewis]

No sweat, you are fine.  And, you are on the map.